Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Editorials from around Pennsylvania:

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FUELING THE POLITICS OF HATE, June 13

If the point of those “March Against Sharia” protests last weekend in Harrisburg and across the country was to increase the volume of insults and the political vitriol that divide America, then event organizer ACT for America surely succeeded. Otherwise, these hate-bating demonstrations and pot-clanging counter-demonstrations only add to the din that disrupts critical thinking.

Last we checked, Washington was not in any imminent danger of collapse from a siege of marauding Islamofascists. And we seriously doubt America today or in the near future is threatened by any state-sanctioned religious extremists.

The apprehension that some surreptitious force, presumably Muslim, is attempting to supplant the U.S. legal system with Sharia law is absurd.

These kinds of protests make for dramatic video - but not very good messaging. If anything, the invectives hurled - from both sides - only widen the political divide since Donald Trump’s election as president.

If Americans are so duly concerned about their country’s future, they should double down not on the politics of hate but on constitutional principles that gave rise to the most liberty-minded republic on the planet. As a guest columnist opined recently for the Portland (Oregon) Tribune, “Hate is seductive because it demands so little of us.” That much was evident from last weekend’s protests.

Indeed, America, which soon celebrates its birthday, should be above such empty, anger-fueled demonstrations.

-The (Pittsburgh) Tribune-Review

Online: https://bit.ly/2rwoLFR

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LATE-NIGHT GAMBLING (BILL) IS BAD, June 13

The public firestorm that erupted after Pennsylvania lawmakers granted themselves a big middle-of-the-night pay raise in July 2005 seemed to ensure that, thereafter, important votes would be conducted only during the light of day.

But now, just shy of the 12th anniversary of that infamous pay-raise vote that ended up costing more than 50 lawmakers their legislative careers, the state House of Representatives last Wednesday chose to ignore the lesson from a dozen years ago.

House lawmakers, by a vote of 102-89, used June 7’s evening darkness as cover for approving what’s been described as a sprawling expansion not only of casino-style gambling, but the Pennsylvania Lottery as well.

Perhaps last week’s vote won’t evoke the strong voter backlash witnessed a dozen years ago in response to lawmakers’ greedy move to enrich themselves.

However, state residents of today shouldn’t be happy that the 675-page gambling-expansion bill was voted upon only hours after it was made public - and about the fact that, prior to the vote, House members hadn’t even been given adequate time to read and digest the legislation’s provisions.

Even with the June 30 deadline for 2017-18 state budget passage moving ever closer, House lawmakers should have refused to vote until they had adequate time to read and consider the proposal.

The Senate must not imitate the House’s nighttime action, and the upper chamber must not fail to gather public comment, which the House neglected to do. The House didn’t even make time for official comment from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

In its current form, as passed by the House, the bill contains many potential concerns that demand extensive evaluation and study, a fact alluded to by House Gaming Oversight Committee Chairman Scott Petri, R-Bucks, who called the gambling measure “a complicated, convoluted regulatory scheme that we have no idea whether it’ll be effective.”

That observation pushes against the House’s opinion that revenue from expanded gambling is vital to state budget preparation currently underway.

House members need to face up to the fact - and admit to their constituents - that there’s no way that the proposed expansion of gaming will make a significant-enough dent in the state’s alleged $3 billion fiscal shortfall to consider it a fiscal savior.

Meanwhile, it’s clear that lawmakers haven’t given enough consideration to the potential human toll of creating more problem gamblers.

“There is a lot of good in this bill for everyone,” proclaimed Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, apparently also referring to new or expanded compulsive-gambling-prevention programs included in the legislation.

But it’ll be more difficult to curb gambling addiction if the huge gambling expansion - gambling temptation - that’s proposed comes to pass.

“We’re trying to jam something through quickly, and we’re trying to get it in under cover of night,” Petri said.

Even though last week’s nighttime action might not be considered as brazen as 2005’s pay-raise vote, it was, nevertheless, another indicator of the legislative dysfunction and fiscal irresponsibility that rule the commonwealth.

Pennsylvania needs well-thought-out, workable, long-term answers regarding its decade-long money crisis - answers not built on a foundation of gambling.

Gambling expansion should be a daytime last resort, not a nighttime escape hatch from difficult decisions that are long overdue.

-Altoona Mirror

Online: https://bit.ly/2rhY6x6

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REFORM BILL FALLS SHORT ON PENSION DEBT, June 11

Could we stop using the word “historic” to portray legislative efforts better described as overhyped, overdue and half-baked?

Pennsylvania lawmakers and Gov. Tom Wolf reached for their favorite adjective last week in praising a pension reform bill that will do little to reduce a $77 billion public pension debt over the next 30 years - ensuring that school districts will keep passing along “automatic” property tax hikes in the foreseeable future.

This is reform?

This is historic?

Senate Bill 1 accomplishes something that should have been done two or three decades ago - shift future state employees and teachers into more of a self-funded retirement plan. Those hired after Jan. 1, 2019 will have a choice between a hybrid system (part 401(k), part traditional defined-benefit) or a full 401(k)-type plan. Some employees, including state troopers and corrections workers, are exempt because the nature of their jobs. Wolf has promised to sign the bill.

Because all current employees will get the pension benefits they’ve been promised, the new retirement structure isn’t projected to draw down the billions in accumulated pension debt until 2048.

It is progress in one sense, though. The Legislature and governor didn’t make things worse - as they did in 2001, when benefits were increased and the stock market was expected to pick up the slack. We know how that turned out. In 2010, the Legislature refinanced pension debt - yet kept alive a tradition of not attacking a huge “unfunded liability” in the pension systems.

The Pennsylvania Independent Fiscal Office says the pension bill will save $1.4 billion over 30 years - far less than the predictions of Wolf and legislative leaders. More critically, it absolves the taxpayer of picking up $20 billion in pension investment losses, should the market tank.

The Pew Charitable Trust says the changes enacted last week should bump Pennsylvania’s public pension systems - rated fifth worst in the nation - up to the middle of the pack.

Politically, this might have been the only deal possible between a Democratic governor and a GOP-controlled Legislature. Some Republicans wanted a complete switchover to a defined-contribution plan, but that has drawbacks, too - such as narrowing the revenue stream of employee contributions to “frozen” defined-benefit systems. Also, the courts have held that benefits in existing public pension plans can’t be scaled back unilaterally.

Avoiding the tough choices on pensions comes with a bigger price. It ratchets up the need for property tax reform, as school districts will continue to be billed $4 billion to $8 billion a year to pay a half-share of their employees’ pensions costs.

Right now the Legislature is looking at borrowing $3 billion for operating expenses for the coming year, along with an expansion of legalized gambling. That follows a boost in tobacco taxes and alcohol sales licenses last year.

Sloughing off an increasing tax burden onto gamblers, smokers and drinkers inevitably becomes a zero-sum game.

A crisis for another day? It’s already here.

-(Easton) Express-Times

Online: https://bit.ly/2rwcota

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TRANSPARENCY UNDER THREAT, June 13

A new danger to open government is under consideration in the state Senate.

The Local Government Committee has taken up a bill introduced by Sen. John Eichelberger, a Blair County Republican, to establish a statewide public notice website. It would end the requirement for public notices to be published in the legal advertisements of newspapers.

The bill would assess fees to local governments to fund the state’s startup and maintenance of a website for notices and bids, and Mr. Eichelberger says it would expand access and ease for public inspection of government announcements.

As the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association points out, 82 percent of the state’s adults read a newspaper weekly and web traffic to government websites is so poor that it cannot be measured.

Eichelberger professes concern about costs and alleged ineffectiveness associated with the required publication of public notices. But the bill would create new costs related to a public notices site, including personnel, information technology, security and archiving expenses. It would transfer the costs to local governments, which would be passed on to taxpayers.

Pennsylvania’s newspapers already fund a searchable, updated public notice database at www.publicnoticepa.com, at no public expense.

Eichelberger’s contention that the website would boost the audience for government notices overlooks the fact that 29 percent of Pennsylvanians do not use the internet, according to a 2015 U.S. Department of Commerce study.

The Times-Tribune publishes legal advertising and obviously has a financial stake in the issue.

But the proposal exemplifies poor policy. It would fuel public mistrust by reducing government transparency and creating new opportunities for abuse and secrecy. Advance notice through newspaper legal ads helps citizens, experts and potential foes of measures under government consideration have the chance to comment or take action before issues are settled.

There is no widespread clamor to alter the public notice requirement. In fact, a 2016 American Opinion Research survey found that 87 percent of respondents think public notice advertising is a sensible use of government revenue.

Sen. John Blake of Archbald, the ranking Democrat on the Local Government Committee, should press the case of transparency against an unfounded pitch for savings that would diminish publicity about critical government matters.

-The (Scranton) Times-Tribune

Online: https://bit.ly/2rweklJ

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STORIES FROM D-DAY HEROES MUST NEVER DIE, June 12

The word “hero” is bandied about quite recklessly these days.

We use it to describe famous athletes, movies stars, maybe even a certain politician who sits in the Oval Office - depending on which side of the political aisle you prefer.

We would argue not one of those people is a true “hero” - defined by Merriam-Webster as “a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities.”

But “hero” is the absolute perfect way to describe Eugene Couto, a humble 94-year-old living in Shavertown who helped save the world.

And that’s not overstating things one bit.

The Times Leader profiled Couto last week for the 73rd anniversary of D-Day. He was one of the “great” and “brave” men who took part in the Normandy Invasion of France. Couto and other Allied troops took the beaches from the Nazis that day, then all of France, then all of Europe as well - dislodging Hitler from power and ending one of the most evil regimes in human history.

And they did all that in less than a year’s time, which is quite remarkable when you think about it.

D-Day was June 6, 1944.

Germany formally surrendered by early May 1945.

Let’s just imagine for a moment if that D-Day invasion had failed, as Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower feared it might. (Ike went as far as to write a letter to explain the failure, insisting he should take the blame, not the troops.)

We would’ve attacked again, but Hitler and the Germans would have had even more time to fortify their positions and tighten their grip over Europe. Plus, if D-Day’s beach landings were repelled, the Allies would’ve been forced to come at the Nazis some other way the next time to try to re-establish the element of surprise. All that would’ve taken time, allowing Germany to concentrate on the eastern front of the war and pack a full wallop on the Russians.

It’s hard to imagine the bad guys winning. But they very well could have, if not for young men like Couto who were prepared to, as Lincoln said, offer that “last full measure of devotion.”

Hence, it’s vitally important we never forget their efforts that day - whether it’s 73 years ago or a 1,073 years ago. Simply stated, if they didn’t do what they did then, our country would most likely look a lot different today.

And stories like that from Couto, who ran onto Utah Beach, need to be recorded and retold over and over again so the younger generations never forget they are living off the successes of the generations that went before them.

As one 88-year-old we were talking to recently remarked while lamenting a general lack of D-Day coverage: “It’s part of our history and who we are.”

That’s exactly why history is so important.

It shows us “who we are” and how we got to where we are today. It not only explains the past, but helps us anticipate the future.

You might have also read in our pages last week about Hanover Area history teacher Carl Daubert, a dedicated instructor selected to be a Woodrow Wilson Foundation HistoryQuest Fellow.

Daubert is molding young people into highly informed, critically thinking patriots, a must-have for any democracy to thrive. We cannot envision a more important job in any classroom today. (Especially in light of a 17-year-old recently telling us he had no idea who even Richard Nixon was, and knew Eisenhower simply as some “war guy.” Don’t worry, Carl, it wasn’t one of your students.)

Oh, you know how that definition of “hero” includes the possession of “fine qualities.”

Well, how about humility.

“We were all young fellas in our early 20s,” recalled Couto of D-Day. “This was our first battle experience. We were all green, and we tried to do the best we could.”

Thank God for all of us, they did pretty darn good.

-(Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader

Online: https://bit.ly/2ssWGnK